Crytek, the company behind Crysis 2 and its CryEngine 3 game development software, is rumored to have plans to let go some of its workers at one of its many studios. Gamasutra reports that between 30 and 35 workers at its Budapest studio could be laid off. Officially, Crytek"s managing director Avni Yerli would only say that "our Budapest studio is getting a new direction and focus" but did not reveal any specifics nor admit to any actual layoffs.
Gamasutra"s story claims that nine team members from the Budapest have already been laid off and that the others will be let go in the "next few weeks". The studio had been working on the Xbox 360 exclusive game Codename Kingdoms. The game was first announced by publisher Microsoft last summer at E3 20101 but aside from a teaser trailer that showed some warriors standing around, little info on the game has been revealed. Gamasutra"s story claims that Codename Kingdoms will be a melee action game using the Kinect motion controller camera.
The story also said that development of the game will now be moved from Budapest to Crytek"s main headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It also claims that the Budapest studio will now work on "tablet development" but specifics were not mentioned. Crytek recently released its sci-fi first person shooter sequel Crysis 2 for publisher Electronic Arts. Earlier this week EA said that Crysis 2 had sold about two million units so far. Crytek also recently announced plans to release a free version of its CryEngine 3 game development tools sometime this summer.